The invention relates to a solid betaine product having good treatment properties. The invention also relates to a method for the manufacture of the betaine product, and its use, as well as an animal feed containing said betaine product and other feed components.
Betaines are fully N-methylated amino acids. Betaines are natural products that have an important function in both plant and animal metabolism. One of the most common betaines is a glycine derivative in which three methyl groups are bonded to the nitrogen atom of the glycine molecule. This betaine compound is usually called betaine, glycinebetaine or trimethylglycine, and it has the following structural formula: 
Other betaines include, for example, alaninebetaine and proline-betaine, which has been reported, among other things, to prevent osteomalacia in chickens. A detailed description of betaines is given by R. G. Wyn Jones and R. Storey in The Physiology and Drought Resistance in Plants, ed. L. G. Paleg and D. Aspinall, Academic Press, Sydney, Australia, 1981.
Betaine thus has a bipolar structure and it contains several chemically reactive methyl groups, which it can donate in enzyme-catalysed reactions. Most organisms are able to synthesize small quantities of betaine e.g. for the methyl function, but they are not able to react to stress by substantially increasing the production and storage of betaine.
Betaine is a highly hygroscopic substance, and therefore its treatment and use as such or as part of an end product causes problems in humid conditions, since it turns viscous, lumpy and poorly flowable. In order to treat and use betaine without problems, it is necessary to protect it against humidity. Hydrophilic fluidity improvers/anti-agglomeration agents (which absorb free water) have been used previously. However, hydrophilic substances of his kind are not able to protect betaine in humid conditions, even though they improve the fluidity of betaine in good, dry conditions.
Betaine is used, among other things, as a feed additive and as a crop improver of plants under stress conditions, as well as in cosmetic, pharmaceutical and food industries.
Betaine can be obtained, for example, from sugar beet by chromaographic methods. Betaine is commercially available e.g. under the registered trademark BETAFIN(copyright), Cultor Oy, Finnsugar Bioproducts. BETAFIN(copyright) is solid betaine (betaineanhydride or betainemonohydrate) produced by Finnsugar Bioproducts.
EP 0 573 876 discloses a method for the manufacture of a product containing cholinechloride by mixing cholinechloride solution in fine drops with a pulverized, hydrophobic substance, and by drying the mixture with a fluidized bed drier. Silica made hydrophobic by silanization or a metallic salt of a fatty acid can be used as the hydrophobic substance.